There are many machines in use today which utilize a print wheel for printing a message on all sorts of materials, and which utilize a pre-inked roller in rolling contact with the print wheel to apply ink thereto. The inventor herein has himself previously invented several machines using such a print wheel and roller combination. Examples of these are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,645, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,080, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. As shown in these patents, and as is known in the prior art, the roller is generally limited in its size, and hence in its ink capacity, by the physical limitations of the brackets which support it and which also generally support the print wheel. While this is not a significant problem as a pre-inked roller can provide a substantial operating life before it runs low and requires changing, the ink supply is the limiting factor on its useful life. After the ink runs out, the roller must be changed which can be a messy job requiring it to be handled, as well as a freshly inked roller.
To extend the time period between roller changes, and to provide the versatility of multiple colors, the inventor herein is also the inventor of a wick-type cartridge attachment disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,863, incorporated herein by reference. The invention disclosed therein includes an auxiliary reservoir of ink with a spring loaded wick extending therefrom and arranged with a pair of hanger brackets to attach to a tape printer or the like. In operation, the wick remains saturated with ink from the reservoir and is urged against the transfer roller to continuously apply ink thereto as it rotates. This invention is a good and valuable invention and significantly extends the time period between ink run-outs, and also permits rapid changeover to a different ink color by simply changing cartridge attachments. As explained therein, replacement of the inking cartridge may be quickly and easily effected by simply unhooking the cartridge from the shaft supporting the transfer roller and replacing it with a fresh cartridge. This completely eliminates the mess of replacing a pre-inked roller.
As an alternative to the pre-inked roller of the prior art or the inking cartridge of U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,863, the inventor herein has succeeded in developing an ink roller assembly for attachment to a tape printer or the like with an enlarged ink roller which may be pre-inked and which replaces the smaller pre-inked roller, or the transfer roller of the other designs. The ink roller attachment is essentially a piggyback unit which is mounted on the back of the tape printer and in place of the roller delivering ink to the print wheel. Moving the roller out from between the machine brackets eliminates the mechanical limitations inherent in the prior art designs and permits the use of a substantially larger roller with a much greater ink capacity. Furthermore, the piggy-back design retains the advantages of the inventor's cartridge attachment including quick color changeover and rapid ink replenishment with little or no mess.
The ink roller attachment includes an oversized roller rotatably mounted between a pair of hanger brackets, with a plurality of cross shafts also extending between the brackets for stability. The hanger brackets have ears for hooking over the eccentric shaft used to mount and align the transfer roller or smaller pre-inked roller of the other designs. Thus, this eccentric shaft provides a fine adjustment of the pressure between the oversized ink roller and the print wheel. One of the cross shafts has a threaded hole with an adjustment screw for insertion therethrough and against the tape printer frame to further urge the roller against the print wheel. This adjustment provides greater potential movement for the position of the ink roller with respect to the print wheel and can thus be viewed as a gross adjustment. Other features and advantages of the present invention may be learned by reviewing the drawings and description of the preferred embodiment which follows.